This thesis explores the legal and economic aspects of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their regulation within the EU. NFTs, as unique digital assets, have gained significant attention, particularly in the fields of art, collectibles, and digital economies. Despite their rapid growth, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding how NFTs should be regulated and how their value is determined. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the applicability of EU regulations, specifically MiCA, DAC8, and AMLD5, to NFTs, as well as how the NFT market functions economically and legally. The thesis employs a combined approach, integrating a legal analysis of EU legislation with an economic analysis of the NFT market. The legal part investigates how NFTs may fall under existing EU regulations, including the MiCA Regulation and the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5), and the legal implications of such applicability. The economic analysis focuses on the factors driving price formation in the NFT market, including speculation, scarcity, and the reputation of creators, and how these factors differ from traditional economic assets. The thesis also highlights the risks associated with the NFT market, particularly regarding money laundering. Due to the anonymous and decentralized nature of NFT transactions, it is challenging to ensure sufficient control, which makes the market vulnerable to financial crime. This underscores the need for more precise and comprehensive regulation of NFTs. The conclusion of the thesis is that, although NFTs are not explicitly regulated under EU law, they can fall within existing regulatory frameworks depending on their usage. There is a clear need for more targeted regulation of the NFT market to both protect investors and prevent the market from being exploited for money laundering purposes. The thesis suggests that NFTs could play a central role in the future digital economy, but only if they are regulated in a way that ensures both stability and transparency. In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates that the regulation of NFTs is currently in a gray area and that there is a need for the EU to adapt its legislation to the rapid development occurring in the digital asset market.
The transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 is likely to leverage the latest technological advances including AI, machine learning and blockchain technology.This might not only bring about a new interplay of the physical, virtual and augmented reality but could also fundamentally change the ways in which corporate entities, social communities and political move ments organise themselves.Decentralisation is a key property of the Metaverse.Policies, legal con tracts and financial transactions that were traditionally the domain of governments, courts and banks might be replaced with smart contracts and financial transactions in blockchain.Cryptocurrencies can be used as a new medium of exchange outside of established banking systems, while non-fungible token (NFT) might serve as unique digital identifiers to certify ownership and authenticity.Taken together, these new forms of self-governance could lead to the explosion of so-called Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) in the Metaverse.Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) are digital entities that are collaboratively governed without central leadership and operate based on blockchain (Jentzsch, 2016).As such, DAOs allow internet users to establish their own organisational structures, which no longer require the involvement of a third party in financial transactions and rulemaking.DAOs allow online communities to simplify their transactions and use a community-based approach to establish rules (World Economic Forum, 2023).However, as this study will explore, they might also give rise to new threats emerging from decentralised extremist mobilisation, pose a risk to minority rights, challenge the rule of law, and disrupt institutions that are currently considered fundamental pillars of our democratic systems.
The rapid development of blockchain technology has propelled the tokenization of real world assets (RWA) in a new direction in the financial industry. This paper delves into market changes, technology applications, actual cases, and regulatory policies to provide a comprehensive overview of the current development, application fields, and future prospects of RWA. The research found that RWA has already made significant attempts to implement securities, intellectual property rights, artworks, agriculture, and other fields, demonstrating broad market prospects, but there are still problems such as unclear legal frameworks and high technical thresholds to be resolved. In the future, RWA needs to focus on technological innovation, expand the market, improve supervision, strengthen cross-industry collaboration, and build a robust decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. This not only provides decision-making references for relevant parties but also helps promote the development of RWA in the global financial system and the integration of traditional assets and digital assets.
In 2016, the World Economic Forum recognized blockchain technology as one of the ten most important emerging technologies. Prior to this recognition, The Economist published articles about the "trust machine," introducing this remarkable technology to a wider audience. In order to understand the progress of blockchain technology and its current state, it is essential for countries to research these issues in relation to their economies. It is important to distinguish between theoretical blockchain applications and their commercial applications to assess the potential disruption of existing business models by blockchain technology. This article presents the European initiative in applying this technology and estimates the Moldovan economy's preparedness in this regard. To achieve this, we have set the following objectives: describing the principles and directions of the EU Blockchain/Web3 Strategy; conducting a comparative analysis of the level of innovation in the Moldovan economy with two EU member states; estimating the potential for future use of these technologies, and outlining the necessary skills and abilities. This research is relevant because it identifies the actions that the Moldovan economy must take to achieve a level of innovation and economic progress on par with the EU.
Андрій Олександрович Гашко, Андрій Петрович Бондарчук, Максим Петрович Трембовецький, Олександр Ілліч Чумак
The article examines an automated method for verifying the correctness of smart contracts in the Solana blockchain network. The relevance of the research is driven by the growing popularity of Web3 applications and the need to ensure their security, as even minor errors in smart contract code can lead to significant financial losses. The primary goal is to develop an automated verification methodology for smart contracts that can detect vulnerabilities such as the absence of founder rights verification, arithmetic operation errors, and missing transaction check signatures. Using static analysis techniques in the Rust programming language, the authors propose an approach that enables rapid analysis-taking less than three minutes per contract-and automatic generation of reports on identified vulnerabilities. The methodology is based on analyzing external data flows through smart contracts, allowing for the early detection of potential threats. To automate the process, Python and Bash scripts are employed, integrating with cloud services such as Amazon Web Services to scale the analysis. Testing results on real Web3 applications demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology, particularly in reducing analysis time and improving the accuracy of error detection. An important aspect of the research is the continuous updating of knowledge bases and analysis tools, enabling the consideration of new types of attacks and vulnerabilities. The article also highlights the importance of interoperability between different blockchain networks, which remains a challenging task but is a key element for the future development of Web3. The research results show that the proposed methodology is promising for scaling and adapting to new challenges in blockchain ecosystems such as Solana. Thus, the developed approach to automated smart contract verification not only enhances the security of Web3 applications but also contributes to their further development, ensuring stability and reliability in the dynamic evolution of blockchain technologies.
The concept of NFTs is tightly associated with the arrival of Web 3.0 in the digital world. Despite the increased aspirations for this new technological phenomenon with promises of protection, new paths of economic exploitation, and innovation, the reality seems more complex. Under the blockchain ecosystem, it is evident that NFTs present a unique structure that is far from what the EU legislator could imagine during the drafting of the EU copyright law regime. This raises the central issue of how NFTs should be legally treated under EU copyright law. Specifically, which actions related to NFTs fall within the scope of the economic rights granted to authors? What distinguishes a lawful minting process from an act of copyright infringement? These questions are tightly associated with the context of digital artworks. However, the main obstacle remains the absence of a clear law regime and case-law regarding Art NFTs. Consequently, this fluidity creates ambiguities between the owners and the buyers for the ownership regime. The purpose of this article is to clear the blurry legal atmosphere related to the application of the EU copyright law to Art NFTs. More specifically, “How Art NFTs interact with copyright? Is there a level of protection that is ensured? In the event of a copyright infringement, who should be held liable? To answer these questions, the research will begin by examining the technological “personality” of NFTs, focusing on the key elements that ensure their functionality as unique tokens. After that, a legal analysis will follow concerning the interaction with the EU copyright regime whether they are eligible for copyright protection, and what economic rights are entailed during the creation of an NFT. Finally, the possible ownership scenarios will be presented and the cases of infringement in the governance of these digital assets.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a rapidly developing segment of the blockchain economy, offering an alternative to the traditional financial system through the use of smart contracts, open protocols, and the absence of centralized intermediaries. In Russia, interest in DeFi is growing amid the digitalization of the economy and the development of regulatory initiatives in the digital asset sector. However, widespread adoption of DeFi is associated with significant risks: technological vulnerabilities, lack of user protection, high volatility, and the threat of money laundering and sanctions evasion. This article analyzes the key challenges associated with the operation of DeFi platforms and discusses possible approaches to their legal regulation in the Russian context– from a complete ban to the creation of a special “sandbox” regulatory regime. It emphasizes the need to balance innovative development with financial stability, investor protection, and AML/CFT compliance.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) emerged with the promise of eliminating traditional financial intermediaries and hierarchies, replacing them with trustless, automated, and decentralized systems. However, the reality of DeFi governance shows that disintermediation does not eliminate conflicts of interest or the need for trust. Cryptoenterprises—financial Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)—operate without conventional governance structures such as boards of directors or managerial oversight, relying instead on code-based mechanisms. This absence of internal governance frameworks creates fertile ground for misaligned incentives, governance opacity, and unchecked internal controls, ultimately exacerbating conflicts between insiders (cryptopromoters) and investors (cryptoasset holders). This Article examines the emerging role of cryptogatekeepers: a new category of cryptointermediaries that counterbalances these governance failures. It explores the structural deficiencies of cryptoenterprises, including the absence of internal monitoring mechanisms, and identifies the conflicts. The analysis highlights how cryptopromoters—those in control of DeFi protocols—retain significant decision-making power while obscuring accountability, which leads to agency problems reminiscent of traditional finance, sans regulatory safeguards. By assessing the function of cryptointermediaries as potential de facto governance enforcers, this Article argues that cryptogatekeepers can introduce a layer of oversight that compensates for the current governance void in DeFi. It outlines best practices for mitigating conflicts of interest, enhancing disclosure standards, and improving the monitoring of cryptointermediaries. The Article also considers transnational regulatory approaches to bolster accountability in DeFi by proposing mechanisms such as cryptointermediary registries, mutual recognition of licensed cryptointermediaries, and standardized reporting frameworks. Ultimately, this Article contends that while DeFi presents an innovative model for financial services, it cannot escape fundamental governance challenges. The rise of cryptogatekeepers suggests that some level of reintermediation is inevitable and necessary to balance decentralization with investor protection and market integrity.
The convergence of real-world asset tokenization and decentralized finance protocols represents a paradigm shift in global financial architecture, challenging traditional concepts of monetary policy, financial intermediation, and economic coordination. This research proposal examines how blockchain-based tokenization of physical and financial assets, combined with programmable smart contracts and decentralized protocols, is fundamentally altering the mechanisms through which value is stored, transferred, and governed in modern economies. The study employs a mixedmethods approach combining quantitative analysis of tokenized asset markets with qualitative examination of regulatory frameworks and stakeholder perspectives across major financial jurisdictions. Our investigation addresses four critical research questions: how tokenization alters traditional concepts of ownership and liquidity; the systemic implications of DeFi adoption for monetary policy transmission; the regulatory evolution required to address risks while maintaining financial stability; and the long-term implications for global monetary coordination. The research contributes to emerging literature at the intersection of monetary economics, financial technology, and regulatory policy by providing the first comprehensive analysis of how tokenized assets and DeFi protocols interact to create new forms of financial infrastructure. Expected findings suggest that widespread adoption of asset tokenization and DeFi protocols will necessitate fundamental reconsideration of central bank capabilities, regulatory frameworks, and international monetary coordination mechanisms. The study proposes a hybrid regulatory approach that balances innovation with stability through risk-based supervision, regulatory sandboxes, and enhanced international cooperation. These contributions are essential for policymakers, financial institutions, and researchers seeking to understand and navigate the transformation of global financial systems in the digital age.
Digital financial assets are an innovative financial market tool that provides a wide range of opportunities for financial market participants to attract financing and invest on an alternative basis using a fintech platform in the absence of traditional financial intermediaries. In conditions of sanctions and external restrictions, when classical financial instruments cannot solve a number of tasks, digital financial assets with the properties of simplified document collection, low time and transaction costs become a new funding tool. The presented research is aimed at identifying the relationship between the use of distributed ledger technology and the emergence of tools that can become the basis for developing innovative solutions to pressing problems of the national economy that have emerged as a result of sanctions and restrictions. To this end, an analysis of the results of a survey of market experts on topical issues of distributed ledger technology during its implementation in the financial market and on the development of the digital financial assets market was carried out. The research uses methods of systematization, logical analysis, comparative analysis, synthesis, and survey. The result of the study was the identification of the positive effects of the use of distributed ledger technology and the potential of digital financial assets in solving the problems of cross-border settlements in the B2B format.
Digitalization is a leading trend that has a significant impact on the future development of the entire global economy. New technologies are radically changing the existing architecture of the traditional financial market and creating new ways of financing and alternative financial instruments. The most demanded and rapidly developing technology in the financial market is the technology of “tokenization” of assets based on blockchain technologies. The purpose of this study is to study the scientific and applied foundations of digitalization of financial rights and analyze trends in the development of the digital instruments market as an alternative segment of the traditional financial market. The research was based on scientific articles, statistical and analytical data from regulatory authorities and professional participants in the financial market. This article will focus on digital financial instruments created on digital platforms regulated by the Bank of Russia and representing digital rights — digital financial assets (DFA) and utilitarian digital rights (UDR). In Russian theory and practice, there is a high theoretical, methodological and methodological uncertainty of concepts related to digital financial instruments. In this context, it is relevant to study the concepts of “digital rights”, “utilitarian digital rights”, “digital financial assets”. The conducted research has shown the need to form an innovative infrastructure for DFA in Russia based on the principle of maintaining a balance between the development of distributed ledger technology (decentralization) and government regulation (centralization).
Jesús Manuel Niebla Zataraín, Paola Jackeline Ontiveros Vázquez
Technology has reshaped the law. The Internet and derived technologies have led to the adaptation of traditional legal figures with the objective of bringing certainty to users and developers. A field that has been subject of constant technological development is contact law. This paper will address this scenario from the perspective of smart contracts, which allows not only a digital representation of the obligations agreed by the parties, but also the capacity to solve discrepancies to ensure operation. Finally, this joint approach offers compatibility with transactions that take place in digital scenarios, contributing to a safer and law compliant cyberspace.
The article explores the complexity and diversity of the crypto-asset space, examining the logic of its development, the dynamics of interactions within the ecosystem, and with the external world. It demonstrates how the open-source nature of crypto projects and the emergence of tools for simplified token creation on third-party blockchains have transformed the crypto-asset space into one of unlimited financial asset creation. The structure of the crypto-asset space is represented through a typology of crypto-assets based on technological, functional, and socio-economic characteristics. By studying thirty of the largest crypto-asset projects by market capitalization, several distinct groups that define the construction of crypto-asset space have been identified: bitcoin and ether as the poles of crypto space development; alternative to bitcoin payment cryptoassets; cryptocurrency based back-office solutions for traditional cross-border payments; stablecoins; coins of alternative blockchain platforms with innovative consensus mechanisms and scalability solutions (Layer 1 and Layer 2); crypto-assets of projects for scaling other blockchains and facilitating efficient interoperability between blockchains and the external world; crypto-assets of projects expanding existing successful virtual networks; crypto-assets of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges; DeFi project coins; meme coins; enhanced privacy coins; and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The article reveals the ongoing development of the crypto-asset space in the following directions: solving the blockchain trilemma considering project goals; ensuring interoperability of decentralized networks; creating new forms of collaboration with traditional financial intermediaries and institutions (which often contrasts with the original cypherpunk ideology). It is argued that the space of decentralized interactions, mediated by crypto-assets, has become a domain of extreme volatility, hyper-financialization, and a space where it is difficult to separate technological value from speculative crypto markets. It also highlights the presence of centralized, opaque, and unregulated hyper-intermediaries, with no clear distinction between professional and non-professional participants in the crypto market. Furthermore, this space seeks additional sources of trust from the traditional world, including through sovereign currency-backed stablecoins, partnerships with traditional financial intermediaries, and regulatory lobbying. In the first article, the ideological foundations, basic technologies of the crypto- asset space, bitcoin and ether as the poles of development in this space, and the typology of crypto-assets are examined.
Annas Rasid Musthafa, Rifda Yussriyyah Putri, Alfaiza Akbar Farizki, Shafanissa Aulya Alma
The development of smart contract in a decentralized blockchain system raises various problems in the legal field marked by cases of smart contract violations such as the DAO, Parity Wallet, and PlayDapp cases. The breach of smart contract in the blockchain system affects the application and enforcement of conventional law in a virtual world that has no geographical jurisdiction. The limitations of conventional law in regulating the virtual world gave birth to various new legal concepts such as lex cryptographia and virtual state. This research aims to examine the expansion of law in blockchain systems and smart contract, especially in cases of breach of smart contract and the birth of new governance. This research uses doctrinal research methods with a case study approach and literature research. Based on the results of this research, the existence of smart contracts affects the legal expansion of their legitimacy and application as contracts that have legal force. Smart contract that have no ties to territorial jurisdiction give the parties to the smart contract complete freedom to regulate the settlement of contract violations, so that smart contracts become law, legal procedures, and punishment itself in carrying out its functions. In addition, the existence of smart contracts in the blockchain system also gave birth to lex cryptographia as a new law and a blockchain-based virtual state as a new governance model that is not limited by geographical areas.
Modern technologies bring a lot of new things into our lives, and at the same time create certain difficulties from the point of view of legal regulation, and many phenomena have not yet received their terminological clarity and understanding. Such phenomena include cryptocurrency, which de facto exists, but de jure is essentially absent from the law the term defining it. The diverse points of view of theorists and practitioners on this concept, the lack of legislative regulation, require the development of a unified concept of cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that is facilitated online enabling anyone from anywhere to transact by making payments or sending money. This paper intends to describe the evolution and meaning of cryptocurrency, its functioning, and the security aspects of using cryptocurrency. Digital transformation has already made us experience its presence in all walks of our lives and it is not going to take much time for the emergence of virtual exchange of value. Literacy of these transactions is essential to playing safe in the coming days. Transactions around the world are made in the absence of physical money. Cryptography is used to encrypt and decrypt information, hence the name cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency works on a public ledger, which is called blockchain. Blockchain technology provides a secure platform. It creates a digital ledger for cryptocurrency transactions. In 2009 the first cryptocurrency was founded by the name Bitcoin and is the best of its kind to date. Still, this system is not immune to cyber-attacks and hackers. Here once money is lost it is lost forever. The backend process is very complex. Transactions are recorded into the blocks and time stamped. Thus, these transactions are secure. Cryptocurrency exchanges, mobile, and web applications are included to set standards for security. An idle cryptocurrency security standard requires an active information system. Cryptocurrency Security Standards (CCSS) provide smart choices and promote decision-making for purchase and investment in the right service. It also helps customers and investors to make better decisions with companies. Usually, standards have ten points to be fulfilled and are put up at 3 levels. Key words: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency Security Standard, phishing,
According to the author, the current trend of digitalization of relations in the field of finance, which is observed today, entails the need to revise approaches to the essence of financial legal relations. Public relations on the formation, distribution and use of financial assets should be regarded as financial and subject to criminal law protection. At the same time, these legal relations do not necessarily develop with the participation of the state and are characterized as public law and state power. The expansion of the list of financial assets fixed by the author allows substantiating the conclusion that in the conditions of the modern information society in cyberspace, not only redistribution takes place, but also the creation of a social product. At the same time, the current legislation in this area lags behind the dynamically developing social relations. In support of this, the author cites a technology for creating digital documents that has not yet been formalized by law through the use of the capabilities of non-fungible NFT tokens. The author emphasizes that the opportunities provided by cyberspace are actively used by attackers for criminal purposes. Documents that define the strategy for the development of the Russian state and ensuring national security, as well as the doctrine of criminal law, adequately assess the threat of financial crimes in cyberspace. The tasks of the criminal law protection of financial legal relations outlined in the criminal law, contrary to the positions expressed in the scientific literature, also quite fully reflect the role of criminal law in combating crime of this type. Contrary to the approach prevailing in the doctrine of criminal law, whose supporters focus on the method of committing financial crimes, the author connects the prospects for studying the identified issues with an analysis of the specifics of cyberspace as a special area for committing such crimes. In this regard, the scientific article highlights the signs of financial legal relations in cyberspace.
This paper explores the intersection of cryptocurrency and political campaign finance, focusing on the opportunities and risks of adopting digital currencies in political fundraising. The research seeks to answer the question: What are the opportunities and risks associated with using cryptocurrency in political campaign finance? The study adopts a qualitative methodology, relying on content analysis of existing literature and case studies of political campaigns that have employed cryptocurrency as a fundraising tool. Key findings suggest that cryptocurrency offers significant advantages, such as global fundraising potential, enhanced transparency through blockchain, and financial inclusivity. However, the risks include anonymity leading to regulatory evasion, foreign interference, and the potential for money laundering. These risks are compounded by inconsistent regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions. The paper concludes that a balanced regulatory approach is essential to leveraging the benefits of cryptocurrency while protecting the integrity of political processes. Future research should explore how regulatory frameworks can be refined to support innovation without compromising electoral transparency.
The 2024 United States’ (US) elections will have a significant impact on transatlantic security and the European Union (EU)-NATO relationship, which is crucial amid the erosion of the rules-based international order, Russia’s war against Ukraine and renewed conflict in the Middle East. While a re-election of Donald Trump could imply new risks for transatlantic security that can lead to a rupture in the EU-NATO relationship, Europeans should also not be disillusioned by Kamala Harris’ proposed foreign policy agenda and the focus on great power rivalry with China. No matter the outcome of the 2024 US presidential elections, the EU-NATO relationship needs to be future-proofed against domestic changes in allies and member states and especially in key contributing states to Euro-Atlantic security.
European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies
The article is dedicated to relevant aspects of investigation of crimes committed with the use of cryptocurrency. Provisions of applicable laws in the digital fi nancial asset sphere are analyzed. Signifi cant statutory and legal problems associated with the regulation of cryptocurrency turnover in the Russian Federation are studied. The main investigative actions to be performed in investigation of such crimes are reviewed. Examples from the investigative practice are given: attention is focused on special aspects of monitoring of transactions, examination, arrest and storage of cryptocurrency and its constituent parts in a criminal case.